Kenai Fjords National Park | Lost & Found EP.10
Hello everyone and welcome back for episode 10 of Lost & Found!
In this episode we pick up right after leaving Homer, Alaska. Having fallen in love with the pack raft from the precious episode, Owen and I race all the way back to Anchorage to pick up not only a pack raft but a brand new camera, the Sony A7siii, and lens Sony f/4.5-5.6 100-400mm lens. It’s kind of a long story as to how all those purchases came to be.
Roadside river on the Kenai Peninsula
But to keep things short, Owen rented the Sony A7siii for our time in Katmai NP and absolutely fell in love with that camera. When we shipped it back, we were immediately sad to not have it around anymore. Also while in Katmai, I wished I’d had a little bit more “reach” to get even closer to the wild life when we were documenting the bears. I’ve dreamed of the Sony 100-400mm lens for a VERY long time. It was a massive splurge to buy all of these things at once, but we figured they would greatly improve what we were capturing for the rest of our time in Alaska. And as the people seeing the raw files while editing the series, it was a worth while upgrade!
MAK writing in her journal
After our day trip to Anchorage we returned to the Turnagain Arm when I finally had a chance to try my hand at surfing the Bore Tide for the first time.
MAK walking out to the water to surf
If you are not familiar with a Bore Tide, allow me to explain:
The bore tide is a rush of seawater that returns to a shallow and narrowing inlet. At low tide, nearly all the water leaves the Turnagain Arm exposing its dangerous, glacier silt, mud flats. Then when the tide comes back in at the speed of around 20 mph, the water returns in such a rush that an actual wave is created in the process. When the conditions are just right, that wave is surf-able!
Even though Bore tides occur all over the world (apparently there are around 60 of ‘em), only a few are actually surf-able! The more you know!
I learned about this wave as a teenager and I’ve wanted to surf it ever since. We will circle back to this wave, yet again, a little later in the series. But it was a real treat to scout the wave for the first time! I mean, anytime I get to get in the water with a backdrop like this, is a good day!
MAK Hiking up to Harding Icefield
Foggy morning at camp
From the Turnagain Arm we ventured toward Seward, Alaska for the first time!
Our first objective in Seward was to hike up to the Harding Icefield in Kenai Fjords National Park! The hike climbed right along side of Exit Glacier, which is one of many glaciers that grows out of the Harding Icefield. The trail was steep, causing us to break a serious sweat, but was wildly beautiful! It gave us wonderful views of the ice below and as you can tell we were pretty captivated by the details in the ice ;)
MAK looking out over the icefield
Once we made it to the Icefield we stayed for a few hours to shoot video, photos and timelapses to our hearts content. The lighting conditions and fog were constantly changing making our view different from one moment to the next! By the time we started our return hike we were frozen!
An island of solid ground in Harding Icefield
Details of the ice, the blue color is most present when the light shines on the ice
I don’t think that either one of us had ever seen so much ice in one place. It was almost hard to look at because there was no end to it, no horizon line, just white… Everywhere.
Foggy morning at camp
During our time in Seward we always camped in the same spot. The surrounding mountains seemed to look different from moment to moment.
Sunset from camp
Falls across the valley from our camp on a foggy morning
MAK about to load up to hike on a windy morning
In a heavy wind Owen and I packed up camp to head out on another long hike.
This time we ventured out to yet another insanely blue lake. What was unique about this lake was how lush and green it was all the way up to the water’s edge. Even though we brought gear to pack raft, fly fish and fly the drone, the wind had other ideas. So we chalked our heavy packs up to exercise and spend a few hours taking in the view before heading out of the mountain.
Another insane sunset from camp
After being completely enchanted by the glaciers and ice of Kenai Fjords National Park we decided to take to the water to try to see the sea glaciers!
Turns out the day we went out on the boat was a bad day for the seas. As we got closer to leaving the protected waters of the bay, the seas were rolling in 11-15ft waves. Our small boat was no match for that so we decided to instead explore the intimate corners of Resurrection Bay. We saw seals, beautiful cabins clinging to the cliffs, puffins, eagles and so much more. Even though we didn’t make it to our destination, we had a blast on the water!
A bird by MAK
A bird by Owen
I’ll leave you here with a few bird photos, one by me, and one by Owen.
MAK standing with the ghost trees
Thank you all so much for stopping by! It’s hard to believe but we only have 5 more episodes left of our series! If you’ve loved what we’ve seen thus far we do have some photo prints from Alaska available for sale. If there is an image you don’t see, but would like to commission a print of, don’t hesitate to reach out!
See you next week!
MAK
Thank you to our sponsors
These brands made it possible for us to document our travels through Alaska and turn it into this series. Without their support none of this could happen. We are forever grateful to have brands we already use and love on our side to help us create something we’re proud of!
Our work life is powered by Battle Born. They make the best lithium batteries on the market and are a crucial part of our power system that enables us to work from the road! It took an incredible amount of power to create this series, and we have Battle Born to thank for making it possible.
Power and power management are key to living and working full time from the road. Our mobile lives run on a Redarc Manager 30. It’s a state-of-the-art battery management system that charges and maintains auxiliary batteries by incorporating AC, DC and solar inputs. We’re not sure where we’d be without it!
We’ve now been living out of our flat-bed Four Wheel Camper for 3 years. FWC builds comfortable and durable campers that can fit on any truck. We can confidently say that our FWC is the most comfortable and livable rig we’ve had in all our years on the road!
Maps are your best friend when you’re on the road. On X makes it easy to find open routes and trails no matter where we are. On X allows us to access saved maps offline so we can locate ourselves in the wild when there’s no service.
Main Line Overland is the shop that built our rig, Roxanne. They are incredibly knowledgable on everything overlanding. We chose to work with them because they build thoughtful, reliable and durable vehicles that can get you anywhere you want to be!
Tires can be some of the best insurance when you are out in remote places. We love and trust our Toyo ATIII’s to get us in and out safely, no matter the terrain. They’re amazing in mud, moon dust, loose rocks, slick rock, you name it!
We’ve trusted our Jetboil cooking systems for years. Our favorite, the Flash Cooking system is lightweight, compact and perfect for any trip!
